Huawei teases tri-fold smartphone, raising competition with Apple in China
Huawei's Mate XT garners over 3.3 million pre-orders in China
Analysts say new model may not significantly impact Samsung and Apple
Huawei leads global foldable smartphone market with 27.5% share
By David Kirton
SHENZHEN, China, Sept 10 (Reuters) -China's Huawei Technologies HWT.UL unveils a three-way foldable phone on Tuesday, as it seeks to widen its lead over Apple AAPL.O in the world's biggest smartphone market with a new form factor that has gained popularity in the China market.
Just hours after Apple unveiled its latest iPhone model, Huawei is holding a launch event of the new Z-shaped smartphone Mate XT which was displayed on its flagship e-commerce stores in mainland China a day earlier.
Huawei's website showed on Tuesday that it had garnered more than 3.3 million pre-orders, for which no deposit is required, for the new smartphone.
By comparison, the entire global market for foldable phones was around 4 million units in the second quarter, according to research firm IDC.
The latest launch, which follows a series of successful smartphone debuts since last year, underscores Huawei's ability to navigate U.S. sanctions and solidifies its position against Apple in China.
Huawei already has two-way foldable phones in its lineup and their strong sales in China helped it overtake Samsung Electronics 005930.KS this year as the biggest vendor of such phones globally.
But the hefty price tag and limited quantity are likely to make the new model more of a symbol of Huawei's tech prowess than a major sales driver, analysts said.
"The upcoming Huawei products are not expected to significantly impact Samsung and Apple's businesses in terms of product quantity," said Jene Park, an analyst at research firm Counterpoint.
"There is a limit to the quantity of products supplied. However, there may be some impact on sales in certain Chinese markets."
The foldable smartphone market grew 57% year-on-year in the second quarter with 3.9 million units shipped, largely as Chinese smartphone makers pushed into overseas markets, according to consultancy IDC.
That still remains just 1.3% of the wider smartphone market, with 292.2 million smartphones shipped in the second quarter, IDC said.
"The average consumer still has limited knowledge about them, not to mention the benefits and value of the products," said Will Wong, a senior researcher with IDC.
High prices of such models remain another barrier. While the new model's price tag is unknown, last year's Mate X5 still retails for over 10,000 yuan ($1,406) domestically, almost twice as much as a new iPhone 15.
Overcoming issues such as screen wrinkles and reduced durability due to the use of more hinges will also be important for foldables' increasing usage, said Park.
Huawei ranked as the world's biggest foldable smartphone seller in the second quarter with a 27.5% market share, ahead of South Korea's Samsung, with 16.4%, according to IDC.
That share rises to 42% in China's home market, ahead of Vivo and former Huawei unit Honor, which it spun off under pressure from U.S. sanctions in 2020.
In the broader smartphone market in China, Apple's ranking fell from third to sixth place in the second quarter, as Huawei emerged as the third-largest vendor on the back of strong sales of its latest smartphones.
($1 = 7.1105 Chinese yuan renminbi)
Reporting by David Kirton in Shenzhen and Hyunjoo Jin in Seoul; Editing by Miyoung Kim and Stephen Coates
Asset collegati
Ultime news
Disclaimer: le entità di XM Group forniscono servizi di sola esecuzione e accesso al nostro servizio di trading online, che permette all'individuo di visualizzare e/o utilizzare i contenuti disponibili sul sito o attraverso di esso; non ha il proposito di modificare o espandere le proprie funzioni, né le modifica o espande. L'accesso e l'utilizzo sono sempre soggetti a: (i) Termini e condizioni; (ii) Avvertenza sui rischi e (iii) Disclaimer completo. Tali contenuti sono perciò forniti a scopo puramente informativo. Nello specifico, ti preghiamo di considerare che i contenuti del nostro servizio di trading online non rappresentano un sollecito né un'offerta ad operare sui mercati finanziari. Il trading su qualsiasi mercato finanziario comporta un notevole livello di rischio per il tuo capitale.
Tutto il materiale pubblicato sul nostro servizio di trading online è unicamente a scopo educativo e informativo, e non contiene (e non dovrebbe essere considerato come contenente) consigli e raccomandazioni di carattere finanziario, di trading o fiscale, né informazioni riguardanti i nostri prezzi di trading, offerte o solleciti riguardanti transazioni che possano coinvolgere strumenti finanziari, oppure promozioni finanziarie da te non richieste.
Tutti i contenuti di terze parti, oltre ai contenuti offerti da XM, siano essi opinioni, news, ricerca, analisi, prezzi, altre informazioni o link a siti di terzi presenti su questo sito, sono forniti "così com'è", e vanno considerati come commenti generali sui mercati; per questo motivo, non possono essere visti come consigli di investimento. Dato che tutti i contenuti sono intesi come ricerche di investimento, devi considerare e accettare che non sono stati preparati né creati seguendo i requisiti normativi pensati per promuovere l'indipendenza delle ricerche di investimento; per questo motivo, questi contenuti devono essere considerati come comunicazioni di marketing in base alle leggi e normative vigenti. Assicurati di avere letto e compreso pienamente la nostra Notifica sulla ricerca di investimento non indipendente e la nostra Informativa sul rischio riguardante le informazioni sopra citate; tali documenti sono consultabili qui.
